Bruno edges Melo in bloody finale in Fight Time 10

The blood dripped from Anderson Melo’s face like a faucet. The cut above his right eye leaked relentlessly onto the mat leaving a red pool along the side of the cage that was soon smeared by the bodies of the two fighters.

When Melo stood up, the blood stream stretched from his eyebrow to his chin. Unyielding, the Brazilian underdog hung in for three rounds against hometown favorite and main event headliner Steve Bruno.

“One time I got like three or four elbows in a row and it looked like he was slowing down,” Bruno said. “But then the round ended. … He hung tough.”

Bruno ultimately prevailed in a thrilling bout, with all three judges scoring the fight 29-28 in his favor. Their match was a thrilling conclusion to Fight Time 10 “It’s personal” in front of a raucous, near-sellout crowd inside the War Memorial Auditorium. And though the co-main event featuring Wilson Gouveia and Wayne Cole was dropped at the last minute, the remaining nine fights left fans buzzing as they exited.

The fight followed a pattern through each of the three rounds, with Melo kicking until Bruno charged forward for a takedown. There, Melo operated on his back and worked towards a victory by submission.

And when the fighters separated, Melo kicked upwards with his legs until Bruno plunged down with elbows and fists — one of which caused the cut of Melo’s eye.

Though the crowd grew nervous with each successive submission attempt from Melo, Bruno twisted out of them repeatedly and ultimately prevailed.

“I knew that he couldn’t really do anything to hurt me,” Bruno said.

With Cole backing out of his fight against Gouveia hours before the event began, the bout between Sam McCoy and Sammy Rodriguez was upgraded to co-headliner.

McCoy, who works as a police officer in Boca Raton, dominated Rodriguez by relying on his jiu jitsu background to force a ground fight.

The fighters would exchange punches before McCoy charged to bring Rodriguez down. There, he used his bigger frame to wear down Rodriguez.

“I think my hips were a little too heavy for him, so he was having difficulty with that,” McCoy said.

By the time the third round arrived, Rodriguez was visibly tired. He spent all but a few seconds of the fight on his back with McCoy dictating tempo from above, and one final slip in technique did him in.

McCoy was spun around from his dominant position to apply a north-south chokehold that forced Rodriguez to tap.

As Rodriguez bowed out, the crowd erupted in support of McCoy. It was a roar matched only during the third round of the Bruno/Melo fight, during which the audience broke into chants of “Bruno, Bruno!”

Bruno said he heard the roars and that they helped him push forward towards the end of the fight.

“I hope the crowd liked it,” he said. “I definitely had them nervous.”

But as the judges decision was read, and Bruno was hoisted onto the shoulders of one of his handlers, the home crowd was delighted having seen both if its favorites prevail.